Seven days

A glance at the week that was...

Grounded

The country’s air traffic controllers gave politicians a breather this week by becoming the least popular people. A four-hour strike on Wednesday left the airports paralysed and led to cancelled flights and disruption for 20,000 people. There was little sympathy from passengers, with one describing herself as “furious with a capital F”. Following the problems caused by the weather, it has been a bad month for airports, though the food halls were packed.

Rumbled

Organisers of a major Chinese marathon discovered that 30 of the top 100 finishers had cheated – some going as far as to hire imposters to run for them. The Xiamen International marathon, run earlier this month, discovered video footage of runners sharing microchips and others hopping into vehicles. It was all motivated by how good perfomances brought extra credits for the competitive college entrance exams.

$28 million

Cost of a space shuttle, one of two being sold off by Nasa

10Number of rhino horns found by Customs at Shannon airport – they're worth €500,000

We now know

NBC will pay US talk-show host Conan O’Brien €23 million to stop presenting The Late Show after just seven months. Jay Leno will return to the slot.

The century-old National University of Ireland is to be dissolved.

An Italian minister has suggested a new law that would make children leave home at 18.